Device for supporting walls of a tile game



Aug. 12 1924. 1,504,633

L. W. LUCE DEVICE FOR SUPPORTING WALLS OF A TlLE GAME Filed May 1, 1923 INVENTOR ATTORNEY Patented Aug. '12, 1924.

STATES LUCY W. LUCE, OF BROOKLYN, NEVJ YORK.

IOEVICE FOR SUPPORTING WALLS OF A TILE GAME.

Application filed May 1, 1923.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, LUCY W. 'LUOE, a citizen of the United States, residing at 116 Remsen Street, Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in a Device for Supporting Walls of a Tile Game, of which the following is a specification.

The invention has to do with the Chinese game played with tile pieces comprising three minor suits known as bamboos, characters or numbers, and circles or spots, and seven major suits known as the East lVinds, West lVinds, North lVinds, South finds, Green Dragons, Red Dragons and .lVhite Dragons, together with eight honor tiles known as flowers or seasonsj which may or may not be used in play. There are one hundred and forty-four tiles, including the flowers and seasons, or one hundred and thirty-six without these tiles. In this game, as is well known, the tiles, preliminary to play, are built up in four walls, each seventeen or eighteen tiles long and two tiles high, forming a rectangular enclosure, and it is a desideratum that the walls be constructed as to line and angle as accurately as possible, which is quite troublesome.

The purpose of this invention, therefore, is to provide an adjunct by means of which the walls can be built quickly and easily and with the desired accuracy, Iprovision being made for two lengths of wa when playing with and without the extra tiles termed flowers and seasons.

In the accompanying drawings illustrating the invention:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of an adjustable frame constituting aform within which the tiles are laid to form the walls, portions of two of the walls being indicated; and

Fig. 2 is an elevation of one of the four members from which the frame is constructed, the intermediate part of the bar or member being broken out because of the limit of space.

According to the invention four duplicate flat bars 2 are provided. Each bar has near one end a transverse slot 3 extending half way inward from one longitudinal edge, and near the opposite end two spaced slots 4:, P, extending inward from the opposite edge.

Lugs 5 and 6 projecting endwise from the opposite ends of each bar afford finger grips,

Serial No. 635,955.

the lugs 5 preferably having scallops 7 in their edges which are continuous with the upper edges of the bars.

The bars are of proper length and their slots are so positioned that when they are fitted together as seen in Fig. 1 they form a rectangular frame within which the walls, seventeen tiles long and two tiles high, can be exactly built against the included inner faces of the bars. For this adjustment each of the single slots 3 is fitted into the inner slot 4 of. the double slotted adjoining end of another bar.

When the game is played with flowers and seasons, eight extra tiles must be accommodated, making the walls eighteen instead of seventeen tileslong, andthen the slots 3 are fitted into the outer slots 45, the distance between the centers of the slots t and 4 being the width of a tile.

When all four walls have been built, the players take hold of the lugs 5 at the ends of the four bars which form the overlying members of the slotted corner joints, and lift them away from the adjoining ends. This disconnects the parts of the frame, which are then turned outward and laid flat in front of the players, the entire operation being performed without any disturbance of the walls, and the bars when thus disposed offering no obstruction to the subsequent play. The scallops 7 should always be at the right of each player, thereby automatically assisting in the assembling of the frame.

WVhat I claim as new is:

1. A device for use in building the walls of a tile game of the kind described, comprising four duplicate bars of proper length, each of said bars having near its opposite ends slots extending inward from Opposite edges, and finger grips projecting from the ends, whereby a rectangular frame is formed when the slotted portions are fitted together, and after the walls have been built therein the frame may be conveniently disassembled and the parts laid before the respective players without disturbing the walls or obstructing subsequent play with the tile pieces, substantially as described.

2. A device for use in building the walls of a tile game of the kind described, comprising four duplicate bars of proper length, each of said bars having near one end a single slot extending in from one edge, and

near the opposite end two spaced slots which extend in from the other edge, whereby a rectangular frame of greater or lesser interior frame may be conveniently disassembled and the parts laid before the respective players without disturbing the walls or obstructing 10 subsequent play with the tile pieces, substantially as described.

LUCY W. LUGE. 

